Chris Colabello went 5 for 7 in the Twins’ sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday at chilly Target Field. He leads the American League in runs batted in (19) and doubles (nine) while hitting .357.

Not bad for a 30-year-old undrafted outfielder who played seven seasons in independent league anonymity before finally getting a minor league chance with Minnesota two years ago.

Colabello is fast losing his anonymity, though. Opposing pitchers have taken notice of those numbers. From now on, he’s going to be pitched differently.

Colabello doesn’t necessarily agree, though.

“Not really; the lineup’s so good around me right now that, I mean, pick your poison,” he said.

Colabello bats fourth for the Twins, preceded by Joe Mauer (.279 hitting in the No. 2 spot) and Trevor Plouffe (.309) and followed by Jason Kubel (.340).

Besides, Colabello said, “A sign of a good baseball player is a guy who makes adjustments. You start to recognize what teams are doing to you and set your plan accordingly.

“But I don’t think as a hitter you want to stray too far away from your approach. I just think it’s important to be yourself, and the more you understand who you are, the better you can understand what other guys are trying to do to you and adjust.

“I try not to worry too much about what they’re going to do. I’m more concerned about how I’m going to approach my at-bats, thinking about my plan. Then we’ll go from there.”

Besides, he added, pitchers taking special notice of him “is more a sign of respect, too.”

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said pitchers already have taken notice of Colabello.

“They’re trying all kinds of things now,” he said. “They’re spinning balls on him, and they’re trying to pound him inside and knock him off the plate a little bit. He’s made some adjustments and, as always, people are going to adjust to you and you’re going to have to adjust back.

“That’s the whole game — somebody might think they can get you out one way, and that’s the way they’re going to pitch you. And if they’re successful, other teams might see that and you’re going to have to adjust to how they’re pitching.

“And right now, he’s doing pretty darn good.”

Kyle Gibson won his third game in three starts in Thursday’s 7-0 victory over Toronto. The 26-year-old has been labeled a top prospect in the Twins’ organization for several years.

“You know what, Eric Rasmussen (organization pitching coordinator) always said if you’re a prospect, then you’re somebody who hasn’t done anything yet,” Gibson said. “The ‘prospect’ label is great, obviously — it’s an honor to be considered a top prospect.

“But, yeah, I think I’m at that age where I’m ready to start establishing myself in the big leagues.”

No Timberwolves jerseys, including Kevin Love‘s No. 42, were among the NBA’s top-15 selling this season. No. 1 is LeBron James.

St. Bernard’s grad Jordair Jett, via St. Louis University, scored eight points with seven rebounds in his first game of the Portsmouth Invitational scouting combine in Virginia.

Tough guy senior Tom Serratore, who left the Gophers this week for a tryout with the Philadelphia Flyers’ Adirondack team, scored his first AHL goal and had his first AHL fight, for which he received a penalty. Serratore told his father, Frank, the hockey coach at Air Force, that he quickly found out professional hockey is much different from college hockey.

Lynx point guard Lindsay Whalen‘s Eurocup champion Dynamo Moscow team lost 82-51 to UMMC Ekaterinburg in Game 1 of the best-of-three Premier League semifinals this week, with Whalen scoring nine points.

Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio says his sister Laia, a shooting guard in Spain, will spend next year at a prep school to improve her academics for college.

Innovative former Minneapolis hockey coach and ex-Gopher Harry Brown died at age 90 the other day.

The headmaster at St. Thomas Academy will be Matthew Mohs, a 1990 Academy grad.

DON’T PRINT THAT

Don’t be surprised if George Karl, 62, who coached 25 seasons in the NBA, gets consideration to be the next Timberwolves coach.

Gophers forward Charles Buggs undergoes left knee surgery in two weeks but isn’t expected to miss much of summer workouts. A different knee procedure that would have taken Buggs seven months to recover was considered.

Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis will be the hotel for major league all-star players for the July 15 game at Target Field. The base hotel for all-star business will be the Hilton in downtown Minneapolis.

The University of St. Thomas and WCCO-AM are close to an agreement to broadcast Tommies football again next season.

The Twins closed the upper left-field deck of Target Field for Thursday afternoon’s game against Toronto because of ice in the area. Game-time temperature was a club-record-low 31 degrees.

OVERHEARD

Twins starter Kyle Gibson, 26, who spent three seasons in the minor leagues and Thursday ran his major league record to 3-0 with a 7-0 victory over Toronto: “I think I learned a lot over my time in the minor leagues, but I definitely don’t want to go back, and I want to keep doing what I’m doing to avoid that.”

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